GoDeliver 2.6 Manual


Contents


1. Getting started: setting up products, customers and routes.     2. What if some products are not delivered?
3. Accepting payments from customers 4. Adding a customer charge
5. Setting a password for the Setup menu 6. Exporting reports as csv files
7. Removing old data 8. Creating mailing lists
9. Backing up your data files 10. GoDeliver and the Internet
11. Holidays 12. Printing and emailing invoices
13. Resetting the start date 14. SMS Messaging

1. Getting started

When you run GoDeliver for the first time the program will lead you through the setup process. If you don't have all the information at hand you can quit the program and start again where you left off later. If you make a mistake you can fix it later by selecting the appropriate item from the Setup menu.

1.1 Date format
GoDeliver allows you to choose dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy.

1.2 Currency symbol
You will be asked to enter your currency symbol, eg $, £.

1.3 Business details
The only required field is the name of the business.

1.4 Email configuration
If you wish to use GoDeliver to send emails to customers you must configure your email. You can do this later by selecting Configure email from the Setup menu. The port defaults to 25, you should not need to change this.

1.5 Billing day
You are asked to choose the day of the week when bills are calculated, so that you can determine the amount owed by customers when you bill them. You can choose "any day" if you want more flexibility.

After you have completed the setup, the next step is to add products to the database. Products could include newspapers and magazines if you are a newsagent, milk and eggs if you deliver dairy produce. You can add products by selecting Add product from the Products menu, pressing the F1 key or clicking on the newspaper icon on the toolbar. Enter the description of the product (eg Daily News or Dozen eggs), the price and the days when the product is available for delivery. Specify whether the product is available for morning or evening delivery.

You can edit the product details by selecting Edit product from the Products menu, pressing the F2 key or clicking on the first binoculars icon on the toolbar.

After you have added products, you should add customers to the database. Select Add customer from the Customers menu, press the F3 key or click on the customer icon on the toolbar. The required fields are the customer's name, the house name or number and the road/street. When you want to add another customer on the same street you will be able to select the street from the drop list and the other address details will be filled automatically when you tab to the next address field. You can add products which are to be delivered to the customer by clicking on the Add button. If the customer is to suspend delivery for a period (eg for vacation) check the Suspend box and enter the dates.

You can edit the customer details by selecting Edit customer from the Customers menu, pressing the F4 key or clicking on the second binoculars icon on the toolbar.

After you have added products and customers you are ready to set up your delivery routes. Select Add route from the Routes menu, press the F5 key or click on the route icon on the toolbar. Enter a meaningful name for the route, eg "Village, Mon-Sat, am" and enter the cost per customer per day. Select whether the route is daily or weekly and mornings or evenings. Select the start date for the route (which could be the date you intend to start using GoDeliver).

You can add single customers to the route by clicking on the Add customer button and identifying the customer. You can add all the customers from a street by clicking on the Add road/street button and selecting the street, or from an entire district or post code (zip code).

To remove a customer from the route, identify the customer and click on the Remove button. To change the order of a customer in the list, click on the customer then click on the new position.

You can edit a route by selecting Edit route from the Routes menu, pressing the F6 key or clicking on the third binoculars icon on the toolbar.

After you have set up a route you can display and print the daily delivery details by selecting Print route from the Routes menu or pressing the F7 key. You can choose to print the amount owed by each customer so that the delivery man can collect the payments.

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2. What if some products are not delivered?

There will probably be occasions when you are unable to deliver certain products to customers on some days, or a customer may be missed on the delivery round.

To correct this, select Short delivery from the Routes menu or press the F8 key. Select the date and the route. If an entire product was not delivered, click on the Remove product button and identify the product. If a customer was missed, select the appropriate item(s) from the list and click on Remove item. If you want to change the quantity delivered, double click on the item and select the new quantity.

This will ensure that customers are only billed for the products they received. You can only correct deliveries in this way after the delivery has been made.

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3. Accepting payment from customers

To accept a payment from a customer, select Find customer from the Customers menu, press the F4 key or click on the second binoculars icon on the toolbar. Identify the customer.

Click on the Accept payment button and change the payment due date if necessary. The default date depends on the billing day that you set up earlier. If you specified "any day" it will default to the current date. If, for example, you specified Saturdays, it will default to last Saturday's date.

The program will tell you the amount to be paid. If the customer pays less or more than the payment due, the balance will be adjusted accordingly.

If the customer wishes to redeem vouchers, click on the Accept voucher button. If the voucher is already in the system, select it from the drop list and enter the quantity to be redeemed. Otherwise enter a description of the voucher, the unit value and the quantity. You may accept more than one voucher for a single payment. If there are vouchers in the drop list which are no longer in use you can remove them by selecting Remove voucher from the Setup menu.

Click on the Print invoice button to print an invoice for the customer. You can create text to print at the bottom of the invoice by selecting Invoice text from the Setup menu.

Click on Email invoice to send the invoice to the customer by email.

To view the customer's history, click on the Show history button.

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3. Adding a customer charge

To add a charge to a customer's account, select Add charge from the Customers menu.

Identify the customer.

Select the date, enter the amount and enter the description of the charge.

This feature is useful if, for example, a customer is delivered an item which is not on the list for the delivery route.

You can remove charges from the droplist using Remove charge from the Setup menu.

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5. Setting a password for the Setup menu

You can create a password to protect the Setup menu commands by selecting Password from the Setup menu. This will prevent unauthorized employees from changing the setup.

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6. Exporting reports as csv files

All reports can be exported as csv (comma separated variables) files so that they can be read by a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. To set up this option, select Export reports from the Setup menu. Each time a report is displayed a file report.csv will be created and saved in your Documents folder.

7. Removing old data

After some time your database will grow and it may be advisable to remove old data. To do so select Remove old data from the File menu. Enter the year prior to which you want data to be deleted.

It is unwise to remove last year's data unless you are sure that all customers have made a payment in the current year.

This function is protected by the Setup password.

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8. Creating mailing lists

To create a list of customer email addresses, select Create email list from the Customers menu. You can choose to create the list for all customers or only customers with payment required.

A list of names and email addresses will be copied to the clipboard so that you can paste it into the CC or BCC field of your email program. Also a file email.csv will be created and saved in your Documents folder. You can import this into the address bok of your email program.

Similarly a mailing list can be created by selecting Create mailing list from the Customers menu. A file mailmerge.csv will be saved in your Documents folder. You can import this into your word processing software.

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9. Backing up your data files

In case your hard drive fails or you have some other problem with your computer, it is advisable to back up your data files regularly (to CD or flash drive). You can do this by selecting Back up data files from the File menu. Identify the folder where you want the files to be saved.

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10. GoDeliver and the Internet

GoDeliver allows you to upload your delivery routes to your Website so that your delivery person can follow the route on his or her mobile device. He or she can also adjust the delivery quantities. Then when the delivery is complete you can download the delivery route and the quantities in the GoDeliver database will be adjusted so that your customers are billed correctly.

To set up the Internet, select WebLink from the Setup menu. The name of the file which you need to access on your Website to view the route is godel.php. After you have completed all the fields, check the box to enable the connection and click on OK. This will test your connection and upload the necessary PHP files.

To upload a delivery route select Upload route from the Routes menu or click on the up arrow on the toolbar. Select the route and the date. You can choose to show the amount owed by each customer so that the delivery man can collect the payments.

After the route has been delivered select Download route from the Routes menu or click on the down arrow on the toolbar. The delivery quantities will be adjusted automatically (but delivery charges, if any, will not be changed).

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11. Holidays

To add a holiday when there will be no deliveries, select Add Holiday from the Holidays submenu of the Setup menu. Select the date. If it is an annual holiday (such as Christmas) check the box.

To remove a holiday select Remove holiday from the Holidays submenu.

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12. Printing and emailing invoices

To print invoices for all customers, select Print invoices from the Invoice all customers submenu of the Customers menu. Enter the payment due date. Invoices will be printed for all customers with payments due on that date. If you do not want to see the printer dialog box each time an invoice is printed, select Printing from the Setup menu and check the box.

To email invoices for all customers, select Email invoices from the Invoice all customers submenu.

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13. Resetting the start date

If you have been evaluating GoDeliver and you want to remove all the test data you could unistall the program then reinstall it, but then you would lose all the information on customers, routes and products.

Instead you can remove charges and payments made during the trial period by selecting Reset start date from the Setup menu. Select the new start date. Your customer data (including opening balances), route data and product data will not be affected.

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14. SMS messaging

GoDeliver allows you to send SMS messages to customers. First you should set up an account with CDyne (www.cdyne.com) and they will provide you with a licence key. Select SMS messaging from the Setup menu and enter the licence key. Enter the country code if required. For example if you are in the UK, enter the country code 44 and check the box to remove the leading zero from phone numbers.

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